This invention generally relates to systems and methods for facilitating communications over a public network and more particularly relates to systems and methods for securely communicating information over a public network.
Due to the development of the World Wide Web (“Web”), online communication over the Internet has experienced dramatic growth in recent years. For example, the Internet is used to conduct a broad range of commercial and financial transactions. Parties often use the communication capabilities of the Internet to enter into contracts or conduct business electronically and use electronic fund transfers (EFTs) to satisfy the resulting financial obligations. An EFT involves the movement of funds from one bank account to another in response to electronically-communicated payment instructions.
For example, an increasing number of merchants are developing websites that consumers may access and use to purchase goods and/or services. It is now common for a consumer to browse a merchant's online catalog, select a product, place an order for the product, and pay for the product all electronically over the Internet.
Although the Internet offers a fast, reliable, and efficient way to communicate and conduct business, information transmitted over the Internet or other global networks may be vulnerable to security breaches. For example, consumers typically pay for the goods and/or services ordered over the Internet with a credit card. During the online transaction, the merchant sends an order form and asks the consumer to enter personal data such as his name, address, and telephone number, and credit card information such as an account number and expiration date. The consumer returns the completed order form containing the credit card information to the merchant over the Internet.
Typically online merchants also direct the consumer to key in a personal identification number in a pop-up window to verify that the individual providing the credit card number is authorized to use the card. Therefore, in a typical online credit card transactions a keyboard reader installed on a computing device may be used to illicitly intercept the keystrokes used to enter the consumers PIN on the keyboard of the computing device. In addition, the credit card information may be intercepted in route and combined into a database with the PIN and used to make unauthorized purchases. In an automated environment, a thief can repeatedly use the stolen credit card information to readily conduct many online transactions before the consumer ever becomes aware that the credit card data has been stolen.